St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-31

is found in much abundance A town
has been discovered, companies formed,
and the mines are now being worked;
very rich and valuable coal mines are
being worked; it is easily to be seen
that this great territory will soon be the
wealthiest state in the Union. This
country is equally as well adapted to
stock raising as is the state Of Vermont,
and would have to feed about the same
length of time, they fatteniIg quick
here on prairie grass. and will
good timothy. 1t has been
claimed that stock could not he raised
here without feeding them grain dur
ing the cold weather in the winter, but
l never fed grain to my cattle, and L
have as fine herd as can be found,
and they have nothing better than
prairie hay. All that is necessary is a
warm stable, plenty of hay for bedding
to keep them clean and dry, and they
winter here just as well as anywhere in
the world, and the stock
farming find pays large
profits on the money invested.
Another great blessing to Dakota is its
pure water, which can be had at very
small cost, and there are springs of soft
water which come to the surface by
their own natural course. l never knew
of but one farmer failing to get water
in the Red river valley where they sunk
an artesian well, and this one found gas
and used it for heating and lighting his
house. The climate is very fine, the
sun is shining nearly every day in the
year. We have no cloudy, dreary, lone
some weather here. 1t is very seldom
that we get any rain here in harvest.
Just when we most need pleasant
weather we are sure to get it. The
winters are not so long here as they are
in the East. Last spring we began
seeding the last of March, and was
blowing this fall until the 10Th of No
Vember.
The snow came the Sd of December,
which is very early, as we don't gener-
ally get any sleighing before January,
and sometimes none at all. There has
been six inches of snow on the ground
already, but it is growing less every day,
and if more does not come to take its place
we shall soon be using the wagons again.
Many awful storms are reported as hav-
ing swept over the Northwestern coun-
try, turning. things upside down and
wrong side out. / have been
here eight years and have never seen
cyclone nor a building unroofed. nor
any great damage done by the wind. l
have been obliged to face the hardest
snow storms that we have had since
lived here, and l do not think they could
rightly be called billiards.. 1t gets
down quite cold here sometimes, but
when 1t is the coolest the wind never
blows, and the coolest weather is not
altogether unpleasant, for they are the
clearest and brightest days of the win
ter. r. n. WILCOX.
HUNTER. Oak, Dec. 26.-I am we'll
pleased with Dakota as farming cOun-
try, and feel that | can speak we'll of it.
| came to Hunter, Cass county, in the
spring of 1882. | brought with me, all
told, not to exceed $1,000. One-half of
that was buried capital in stock that l
had gone in debt for at my former home.
l rented 600 acres, and got about fifteen
bushels to the acre. That was not
as much as / had been led to look for.
That however, was a very wet spring.
WINGED of one thing. That was to sue
farms, and with that conviction | went
to work buying land as my circum-
stances would permit, and now have
2,l20 acres, 100 acres of this is penned
in pasture with running water in it.;
100 acres is new land, broke and back set
last summer. | shall seed 100 acres of
this land to wheat, and 200 to oats and
barley. This land cost me on an aver
age of about $40 per acre, and while l
have done well cropping that land, as
my report for the last two years will
show, the land has doubled in value
since | bought it. l bought my land
adjoining and lying south and west of
Hunter. You will say that was lucky.
What | have done you might have
done and may still do, there are still
golden opportunities in this Northwest
awaiting the man of push and"energy
that wants to better his condition finan-
cially. | am well satisfied with this
country, and have no notion of return
ing to the old twO-horse pillow and stones
and stumps of Michigan farms. Come,
then, with us and we will do thee good,
for the Lord has spoken good concern
ing Dakota. w. w. BEARD.